Wireless communication systems are well known in the art. In such systems, wireless communications are typically supported by one or more fixed base stations that wirelessly communicate with one or more mobile stations. The type of information transmitted back and forth between the base stations and the mobile stations depends, in part, upon the particular type of wireless communication system in question. For example, in code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless communication systems, base stations transmit power control information to individual mobile stations via a so-called forward common power control channel (F-CPCCH). As known in the art of CDMA systems, the mobile stations used the power control information to continuously adjust the transmit power output by each mobile station.
Another feature of many wireless communication systems is the existence of multiple modes in which mobile stations may operate. In an active mode, mobile stations are transmitting and receiving data, as would be the case in normal use. At the opposite extreme, in a dormant mode, a mobile station does little more than monitoring an inbound link such as the forward paging channel. In some systems, a third mode, often referred to as a stand-by or control hold mode, exists as an interim state between an active and dormant mode. For example, in many current CDMA systems, a mobile station that is no longer in an active mode transitions to a stand-by mode for a short period of time before further transitioning back to the active mode or to a dormant mode. While in the stand-by mode, the mobile station must continually monitor for an instruction from a base station to transition to an active mode. In many current systems, this is achieved by the mobile station performing continuous monitoring of a dedicated control channel, or, worse yet, through the constant and multiple decoding of data provided on a forward packet data control channel. Regardless of which technique is used to listen for instructions from the base station, the mobile station continues to consume available battery power. As a result, battery life is shortened necessitating more frequent battery recharge operations. This wasteful consumption of battery resources is further exacerbated due to the use of explicit messaging that must be decoded by high-level applications running on the mobile station. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a technique whereby a mobile station may more efficiently receive information from a base station for non-power control purposes, e.g., such as instructions to a mobile station to transition from a stand-by mode to an active mode. Preferably, such a technique should minimize the use of scarce resources such as available battery power.